1 – JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF HUMANITYHow to be citizens of the world in the XXIe century?

Travels invites new and unexpected experiences into our lives. These experiences serve as opportunities to welcome alternative ways of seeing other and refreshing ways of understanding ourselves. In our global village where our geographical frontiers are less relevant then those limits imposed by fear and misunderstanding of human and cultural difference, this conference serves as perfect tool to provoke reflection on our unexamined perceptions and beliefs. It stimulates challenging questions, and encourages debate.

Helene Tremblay traces an unforgettable portrait of those she’s met and how they have changed her life by transforming her way of viewing the world. In exchange she offers us an original vision, a new lens on the eternal question of what it is means to be a citizen of planet earth. She refers to emotional skills such as open-mindedness, tolerance, respect and empathy. She identifies those similarities inherent to shared human basic needs and invites us to explore our deepest roots and our collective aspirations.

2 – TASTE OF ELSEWHERE

– Cultures, adventures, ruptures

In this conference Helene Tremblay asserts that there are many ways to define poverty and interpret success. She keeps us conscious of our privilege and our related responsibility.

She identifies the courage to question the relativity of our own values and our willingness to consider those values existing outside our cultural norms as essential. She states that this dialogue is fundamental to continued social and economic growth.

She repeatedly demonstrates that success through economic and social cooperation finds it roots in the home. She communicates that it is only when we can truly experience the wealth of the human spirit and the richness in the diversity of cultures do the prejudices lose their capacity to define and categorize.

With the understanding that the process of international dialogue is necessarily tempered with a consideration and respect for different ways of being and perceiving, Helene’s presentation serves as a perfect instrument to leave a human imprint on your event.

She also offers a workshop entitled “Show your strength, show your spirit”

3 – AND IF WE CARED FIRST FOR OUR MEN?– Stories of women and men

In this conference, Helene Tremblay recounts stories of women and men. With them, she has walked the roads to the fields, factories, offices and schools. She has participated in their lives, celebrations and enduring traditions. She has shared in those daily events that write and rewrite family history.

These experiences have invited her to consider the nature of those traditions oral, written and implicit. They have compelled her to question the power they hold over the men and women of tomorrow.

Helene explores how unexamined belief systems, maps of consciousness that inform and direct the human journey across generations, cultures and continents give rise to the expression of our gendered and conflicted human relationships. These fairy-tale templates hold the power to either nourish or destroy a child’s dreams.

Helene raises an important question and suggests an innovative approach. She encourages us to consider how we can best care for our men, for our fathers, spouses and sons.She identifies a less travelled road. In our eternal efforts to learn how to best honour those differences that distinguish women from men Helene motivates men to fully disengage in the habitual power dynamics that hold women and girls prisoners and men and boys hostage

4 – WATER IN OUR LIVES

Mysterious Water. Mutable and transformative. It falls from the heavens, hides in the earth. Both gentle and merciless It soothes our soul and ravages our creations. It bathes the planet and holds our beginnings. It flows through rivers, creeks and arteries of our bodies. It dances with the earth, the wind, the sun and graces our gardens. Free, wild and elusive… it cannot be tamed. It is there for all yet belongs to no-one. More precious than gold, more enduring than diamonds. It is a gift of the natural order. It is essential for survival.

From the moment we are born our daily life takes root in water. We bath in it, we drink it, we cook with it, we built our religious and cultural rituals of purification with it, we construct our cities around it . Water does not recognize borders and does not judge the one it serves.The balance with our relationship to water means survival, peace or war.

In this conference Helene speaks to the ways that water flows through our lives and synchronises our existence.